Antisemitism is a shape-shifting virus

There was the illusion that America was different, that it couldn’t happen here

You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to have mercy upon her; * indeed, the appointed time has come. (Ps 102:13)

“Antisemitism is a shape-shifting virus, which has persisted over centuries and across cultures and political systems because it is able to attach itself to the reigning (or at least fashionable) convictions of the day.” Bret Stephens, “The Year American Jews Woke Up”, New York Times, October 4, 2024

It’s almost 5:00 am here on the West Coast. I have my coffee and am reading the Times. Thinking about growing up as a child in Philadelphia. About the owner of the candy store at the end of the block who had numbers tattooed on his arm, and Arnie my best friend in junior high school, and Dr. House who took care of my family. It was a city block in which most of the fathers had served in the fight against totalitarianism. The children of the block knew that something awful had happen to the Jewish people in Europe.

I’m not Jewish. I’m an Episcopalian. An American. A priest and a brother in a religious order. Politically somewhere between the far left and the center left. As I read Mr. Stephen’s this morning I could trace my own journey of recent years that paralleled his story. A broad awareness of increased violence against Jewish Americans, a horror of what happened on October 7, and then the flood of antisemitism pouring its poison over the nation and infecting the church.

Stephen’s wrote., “Finally, there was the illusion that America was different, that it couldn’t happen here, that our neighbors and colleagues would never abandon us, that, as a people and a government, America would do right by the Jewish people at home and abroad.” I guess I believed that too. That America wouldn’t abandon the Jews (again).

As an act of humility and justice I’d invite you to read “The Year American Jews Woke Up” and the earlier posting by Sister Michelle and me “Antisemitism is like crabgrass: A time for humility.”

Now I’m going to pray the Daily Office on this the Feast of Francis.

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

This abides,

Brother Robert, OA

The Feast of Francis of Assisi, Friar, 1226

Ketivah VaChatimah Tovah (Hebrew: כְּתִיבָה וַחֲתִימָה טוֹבָה‎)

May you have a good and sweet new year.